Thursday, August 07, 2008

Summer Olympics Day -1

I decided to participate in the Ravelympics in the WIP Wrestling event. My project? The Leftovers Blanket. It's a long way to go and miles and miles and miles (or, to be Canadian: Kilometersres and Kilometersres and Kilometersres) of garter stitch. I think it'll be good Olympic watching knitting, since it doesn't require much focus and I can just knit and knit.

When last we saw it, the Leftovers Blanket looked something like this:I haven't really knit much on it in a month or more. Can't imagine why it's not done by now...

My original plan was to pick up stitches along the edges of the center and knit 20 rows of garter stitch before binding off. Then I would pick up stitches on the opposite side, then the edges and so on. I planned to knit rounds in this manner changing colors for each round. Mostly I liked the look but there was one problem:

The solid bands sort of flared. Not sure why, but they didn't lie obediently flat like I had hoped. I tried steaming them which helped but I wasn't 100% happy with them. (Can you feel where this is going?) I had (the past tense is sort of giving it away here isn't it?) 2 sides complete and had picked up stitches for one of the ends when the blanket began its 2 month hibernation. This morning I started thinking about having to pick up all those stitches from a bound off edge each time I started a new band. And the daunting task of knitting upwards of 200 stitches per band (increasing each round)... and the fact that I wasn't very happy with the way it was looking...

Meet Plan B:this isn't cheating... this is training. Honest. I forced myself to put it down once I had determined that this would work.I cast on 12 stitches with a provisional cast-on and will knit the bands onto the center section as I go. This plan allows me to not have the entire blanket on my lap as I knit (bonus when it's summer) and it should allow for a neater overall look. I plan to miter (mitre?) the corners and I'm slipping the first stitch to make it simpler for picking up on the next round.

Is it too obsessive if I plan to start working on it at 6 tomorrow morning? Yeah. Probably. Hmm.